Rinse Cycle
by The Nature Of Randomness
Summary: Obi-Wan and thirteen-year-old Anakin visit the laundromat. A long one-shot and my first fanfic!


Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, Mad Libs, or anything else you recognize. They belong to their respective owners.

This was inspired by my six-hour insanely boring visit to the laundromat last week. I had planned for it to be funny, but it didn't really turn out that way. This is my first-ever fanfic, so please go easy on me!

Last revised: February 4, 2011. Punctuation/spelling fixes.

* * *

"Hurry up, Anakin! We haven't got all day," Obi-Wan called, looking over his shoulder to see how far behind his Padawan had fallen.

"Master, these bags are heavy!" The young teen yelled back. He was in charge of two large canvas bags, each stuffed to the brim with dirty laundry, and was supposed to be carrying them neatly. Instead, he'd taken to dragging them along the ground and dramatically trying to hold his nose in disgust at the same time. The effect was quite comical, though Obi-Wan was in no mood for humor. After all, this was a very serious matter.

Every single one of the washing machines in the Temple's laundry room had mysteriously broken down at the same time, leaving the Jedi with no way to clean their clothing. Yoda had assured them all that there wouldn't be a problem for very long. He had called the nearest repairman, who told him he'd be out within the day. That had been nearly four weeks ago and, despite multiple com-calls and several death-threats, the repairman still hadn't shown up. Perhaps he couldn't understand Yoda's inverted syntax…

Needless to say, the Temple hadn't exactly been smelling minty-fresh lately. In fact, most of the Jedi had begun to smell downright rank. Obi-Wan had finally reached his breaking point when he got a whiff of Anakin's dirty socks and nearly passed out. He decided that if a repairman wouldn't come to the Temple, he would find some other way to resolve the problem. Even if it meant a trip to the nearest laundromat.

"Okay, shove them in," Obi-Wan instructed, holding the trunk of one of the Temple's speeders open.

"They aren't going to fit," Anakin replied, shoving two of the bags in the trunk and doing his best to squish them down.

"Sure they are." Obi-Wan sat on the bags, pushing them down just enough to be able to slam the trunk closed quickly. "See?"

"Okay, but what about the other two, Master?" Anakin asked, gesturing towards two other bags, which were still sitting on the pavement.

"Hmm…Well, they'll have to sit in your lap," Obi-Wan replied.

"What?" Anakin gawked in horror. "Then can I drive while you hold the laundry?"

"Certainly not, Padawan. You don't even know where we're going, so get in." Obi-Wan held the door open for Anakin, who reluctantly obeyed. Then he placed one bag of laundry on Anakin's feet, and handed him the other. The boy grumbled, but wrapped his arms around the bag and got settled.

"It stinks," Anakin complained, as they pulled out into traffic.

"I know," Obi-Wan replied.

"Bad," Anakin continued.

"I know."

"_Really_ bad!"

"I know."

"_Horribly_ bad!"

"I know."

"So bad I think I'll throw up, bad."

"I know."

"Is that all you can say?"

"I don't know," Obi-Wan replied, chuckling to himself and causing Anakin to roll his eyes.

"Well, I'm rolling down the window," Anakin grumped as he pressed the button. Before long, the speeder was full of fresh air. "That's better."

"Much better," Obi-Wan agreed.

After a few minutes, a particularly strong gust of wind shot through the vehicle, untying the poorly-done knot of the bag sitting in Anakin's lap. A second strong gust grabbed a garment right out of the bag and flung it out the window.

"Master…why do you have a pair of pink underwear?" Anakin asked, as the item in question went sailing into oblivion.

"You mean why _did_ I have a pair of pink underwear?" Obi-Wan corrected, hoping they hadn't been his favorite pair.

"Well, yeah." Anakin quickly re-tied the bag and rolled up the windows before anything else could escape. He hoped Obi-Wan's undergarment wouldn't fly up into someone's windshield and cause a wreck somewhere.

"Oh, well, they were white…Until Master Windu offered to take my clothes down to the laundry room a few months ago. Said he'd throw them in his bag to be washed with his clothes since he didn't have very many. I guess something of his must have bled onto them," he explained.

"Really?" Anakin wondered.

"Really," Obi-Wan assured him. Then he reached over and turned on the radio before his Padawan could say anything else on the matter.

After a few minutes of listening to Anakin's grating rendition of "Party Like You're a Corellian Rockstar", Obi-Wan reached over and switched the radio back off. Talking about _anything_ had to be better than listening to that!

"Hey, I was singing!" Anakin screeched in annoyance.

"Yes, but we're almost there."

"Why do you always have to turn the radio and air conditioning off like five minutes before we reach our destination? Can't you park _and then_ turn them off, like a normal person?" Anakin fumed.

"Sorry," Obi-Wan said, rolling his eyes.

"Where are we going anyway?"

"To the laundromat."

"No, really? Hmm, let's see here…. The Temple's washing machines are out of order and we just put big bags of dirty laundry in the speeder. Where could we possibly be going? Oh, I bet we're going to the movie theater! Or maybe fishing!" Anakin yelled sarcastically. "Sheesh, Master, I'm not so stupid I couldn't figure that much out."

"Watch your temper, young one. You asked me where we are going and I answered. Would you like to try asking again?" Obi-Wan reprimanded.

"Fine. Which laundromat are we going to?" Anakin cast his eyes downward.

"Jasdyun, over by Dex's Diner."

"Oh." Anakin had never heard of it. They rode in silence for a few minutes.

"Well, here we are!" Obi-Wan announced, pulling into a parking space in front of a run-down old building. It was open in front, revealing a room full of washers and dryers, as well as about two dozen beings of varying species. The two Jedi got out of the speeder and sat their bags on the ground, taking a moment to look around. "It looks like everyone's got one of those carts. I'll go get one for us."

Anakin stood apprehensively, watching the people rush to and fro inside the building. He didn't have the slightest clue what they were doing, but he hoped he and his master would be able to figure things out. His stomach grumbled loudly when he noticed a few snack machines in the back of the building. Obi-Wan had insisted they get an early start, so they had left even before breakfast. Anakin was _starving_.

"Put the bags in here," Obi-Wan called as he came back, pushing a short, funny-looking cart.

"Master, look," Anakin said, tossing his bags in the cart. "Snacks."

"I see that. Maybe you can get one before we leave." The pair walked inside and stood in front of one of the dryers.

"Do you know how to work these machines, Master?" Anakin asked. He'd done laundry plenty of times back on Tatooine, but the machines there looked completely different and didn't use water. The Jedi didn't do their own laundry; they simply collected their dirty things in bags and took them down to the laundry room, where a handful of laundry droids washed them.

"Well, not exactly…but how hard can it be?" Obi-Wan leaned over and began reading the machine's label. "Timed? Dry-miser? Delicate? Regular? Knits? Permanent press? Heavy duty? Which one do you think we should go with?"

"Heavy duty?" Anakin suggested, raising his eyebrows.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Padawan. Now, what do you think?"

"I dunno…" Anakin said as wandered off, deciding to watch someone else do laundry before he risked messing up his own clothes.

"I guess I'll go with regular then." Obi-Wan jabbed the button, but nothing happened. He shrugged, and then realized that he probably needed to put his clothes inside before the machine would work. Of course. He put one bag's worth of clothing in, closed the door, and then pressed the button again. Still, nothing happened. _Maybe this machine is out of order._ Obi-Wan took his clothes out and put them into a different machine.

As he was trying to convince it to work, a young human woman strutted up to the dryer he had first tried to use. He noticed that her clothes were soaking wet when she began tossing them in the machine.

"Excuse me, miss?" Obi-Wan got the lady's attention.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"I just tried that machine, but it seems to be out of order," he told her, trying to be helpful.

"Nah, I saw some woman using it a few minutes ago," she replied, continuing to toss clothes in.

"Oh," Obi-Wan sighed, pressing his dryer's button again. It still didn't turn on, so he began taking all of his clothes out. "One of these machines has to work!"

"Have you even washed your clothes yet?" the woman asked as she rolled her eyes. "They don't look like they could get much drier."

"Doesn't this machine wash them?" he asked, beginning to feel a little bit silly.

"No. This is a dryer. The washers are over there," she replied, gesturing to a row of smaller machines against the side wall wall. Anakin was standing in front of one, hands on hips, looking puzzled.

"Oh. Thank you," Obi-Wan reddened as he tossed his clothes back in the cart and headed over to his Padawan. The woman laughed and shook her head.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan called. "These are the washers. Those are the dryers. Apparently we have to use these first."

"Way ahead of you, Master. The only problem is we don't have any washing powders," Anakin said. "We have to buy some from the shop next door. Oh, and we need to get some coins. The machines don't take cred-cards. "

"Washing powders?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yeah, they come in a box. See that woman right there?" He pointed. Obi-Wan nodded. "That's what's in the box she's carrying. You put a few scoops in the washer before you turn it on."

"Oh," Obi-Wan replied. If there was anything to be said about Anakin, it was that he was good at learning by watching.

"Come on." Anakin grabbed Obi-Wan's sleeve and dragged him towards the door. They headed into the shop next door.

"Hello," the shop owner greeted them.

"Hi," Anakin replied. "Do you have any washing powders?"

"Aisle three," the man informed them.

"Thanks." The Jedi headed in the right direction and quickly found the boxes of powder.

"Berry Delight? Flower Power? After the Rain? Field of Flowers? Gentle Breeze? Don't they have any even remotely-masculine scents?" Obi-Wan asked in disgust. "I guess we'll go with Gentle Breeze."

"I want After the Rain," Anakin replied.

"I don't. I wouldn't want to smell like mud."

"What?" Anakin asked, confused.

"You know—it rains and afterwards everything's all muddy," Obi-Wan explained. Anakin shook his head at his Master's logic and decided to get even.

"Well, I don't want to smell like 'a gentle breeze'. What kind of smell does air have, anyway?"

"A better one than mud."

"Well, what if it doesn't smell like anything at all? Or what if smells like the gentle breeze sometimes found around a Hutt's behind?" Anakin asked, looking dead serious.

"Oh forget it. We'll just get this one!" Obi-Wan grabbed a box at random and stormed up to the cashier. He paid and got a pocketful of coins, all the while avoiding looking at his Padawan.

It wasn't until they got back to the laundromat that Anakin dared to ask what scent they'd ended up with.

"Eloquent Beauty! Master, I think that's probably the worst selection either of us could have made!" he said, shaking his head in disgust.

"Well, at least we have powders now, and coins," Obi-Wan consoled him. The two headed back to the washers. "I'll take this one, and you can have the one next to me."

"Okay." Anakin leaned over and looked at the instruction panel. "I've got this. Turn the knob on the left to oversize." He waited for Obi-Wan to follow suit. "Right. Now turn the middle knob to cold/cold and the right knob to fourteen on the regular section and pull."

"What? You lost me," Obi-Wan interrupted. Anakin leaned over and got his Master's washer ready.

"Okay, now we need the washing powders," he said.

Obi-Wan sat the box on top of another washer and pulled the string that was supposed to open it. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned. The string simply ripped off and the box remained closed.

"Uh-oh," he said.

"What?" Anakin asked.

"It broke."

"Great!"

"Sorry," Obi-Wan muttered.

"It's okay. I'll get it open!" Anakin pulled his lightsaber out and activated it, then cut the box of powders in half, ignoring the shrieks and cries of various other laundromaters. Most of the powders flew out of the box in a dense cloud of perfumed-dust. Several people began choking, including both Jedi.

"I don't think that was a very good idea," Obi-Wan reprimanded after the dust settled. Anakin tucked his lightsaber away and coughed.

"Sorry." He picked up the half of the box that still had some powder in it. "Oh well, at least I saved enough for us to do our clothes." He put a few a few scoops of powders in each of their washers, and then they filled them with clothes. "There."

"We're going to need two washers each," Obi-Wan pointed out after realizing that they still had two bags left in the cart.

"Oh yeah," Anakin replied. They repeated the process with two more machines.

"Now what?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Now…we wait," Anakin replied.

There was a sitting area in the back of the laundromat, near the snack machines. Most of the flimsy white plastoid chairs were occupied, but there were three available. Unfortunately, none of them were near each other, so Anakin shrugged and took a seat on the end, next to a little girl. Obi-Wan sat a few seats over, next to a wizened older woman who seemed to be babbling to herself. He suddenly realized that besides Anakin and a boy of about eight, he was the only male at the laundromat. He found that rather odd, but quickly forgot about it when the old woman suddenly began talking louder.

"So I says to him… You know what I says to him?" She looked expectantly at Obi-Wan, her pale blue eyes watery.

"No," he offered.

"I says he can shove that ring up his…" he paused. "Hey? Is that you, Johnny?"

"Um, no," Obi-Wan said again.

"Boy, I told you to be home on time! You're going to get a butt whoopin' when your dad gets home! Where have you been this time? Don't you even think about lying to me boy!" she shrieked, suddenly looking very menacing.

"Ma'am, this is a laundromat and I'm not Johnny. My name's Obi-Wan Kenobi." He offered a hand to shake, but the lady ignored him.

"Kenobi, Denobi, Spamoni, Latoni…" she rhymed.

"Okay..."

"Do you see all of those little boats over there?" she asked, jerking her wrinkly old arm around and pointing at the parking lot.

"They're speeders," Obi-Wan informed her, beginning to feel really uncomfortable.

"They're speeding? Dear me, oh my. I hope they don't get arrested!" The woman grabbed Obi-Wan's arm and squeezed tightly. "Should we go stop them?"

"I don't think so…" Obi-Wan pulled his arm free. He was really beginning to regret his choice of seat.

"Did I ever tell you about my ex-husband, Johnny, Johnny?"

"I think so."

"The guy was a real knickerbocker. We had eighty-three children and he named all of 'em Johnny," she laughed manically.

"Eighty-three?" Obi-Wan asked, trying to be polite, but barely able to stifle a laugh.

"Yeah. I think you're number fifty-seven. Or maybe number seventy-five."

"Ah," Obi-Wan said.

"So you know what I says to him?" the woman began.

"What?" Obi-Wan sighed.

"I says he can shove…" Suddenly, she closed her eyes and a moment later began snoring. Relief flooded through Obi-Wan, as he stood up and moved four rows up, this time squeezing in between a hefty woman and a tall being with tentacles and blue skin.

"Hello!" The woman said, smiling at him. "I saw you talking to Old Betsy… Don't mind her, she's a real hoot!"

_Meanwhile…_

"And this is my Hoth-adventurer Barbette!" the little girl continued. "I got her for my sixth lifeday!"

"That's nice," Anakin said, wondering how many more dolls the girl would manage to produce from the depths of her backpack.

"You can hold her, if you want," she offered, practically throwing the doll at Anakin. "What's your name?"

"Anakin," Anakin said, catching the doll. It was dressed in a bright orange fur coat.

"I'm Giné," she said. "How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

"I'm eight. Do you want to play dolls with me?"

"Not really…" Anakin trailed off.

"Please?" She stuck out her bottom lip and looked pathetic.

"I'd really rather not."

"Please, please, please? Oh please? I've been here so long without anyone to play with! I'm so bored! Please?" she sobbed, real tears in her eye.

"Fine, I guess," Anakin sighed.

"Great! I'll be Party Barbette and Gardener Barbette. You can be Hoth-adventurer Barbette and Jedi Barbette. You're a real Jedi, aren't you? You're wearing the right outfit." Giné smiled and thrust Jedi Barbette into his hand.

"Well, Padawan," Anakin replied.

"That's so cool! Can you really move things by thinking about it?"

"Yeah." He floated the dolls around for a second, and Giné screamed in delight.

"That's so cool! How'd you learn to do that?"

"I dunno…" Anakin shrugged.

"Oh. Well, let's play now. How about Hoth-adventurer Barbette is Party Barbette's daughter and she went exploring on Hoth except she has to be back by dark. Okay? And I'll come visit you as Gardener Barbette and we'll start a garden on Hoth until Jedi Barbette shows up to take me home because I was out too late. So the next day we'll all be a family and go shopping or out to lunch until we go back to Coruscant or the zoo. Oh, and if I remembered to bring my Benny doll, we can get married the day after that! But first we have to give them all proper names!" she exclaimed.

"Um, okay… Whatever you say," Anakin replied, feeling rather confused.

_Around twenty minutes later… _

Obi-Wan excused himself from the conversation he'd been having with the friendly woman next to him. He wanted to see how Anakin was doing and planned to buy a few snacks. To his surprise, he found his Padawan lying on the floor, completely engaged in a game of dolls with a young girl.

"But what about the garden?" Anakin was asking, holding a boy-doll in his right hand.

"I don't care about the garden! Marry me, right now," the girl demanded, making her doll scoot closer to Anakin's.

"No. I won't!" Anakin snapped back.

"Why not? I love you!" the girl's voice was tinged with emotion.

"Well I don't love you!" Anakin moved his doll back a few inches.

"How can you say that? We have children…"

"Because I'm in love with Pailor. We're getting married next…"Anakin stopped suddenly and looked up, coming face-to-face with Obi-Wan. He turned an impossible shade of scarlet and dropped the doll as though it had burned him. "Um, hello, Master."

"Oh, no no, don't mind me. Carry on. When's the wedding?" Obi-Wan laughed.

"Hi!" the girl greeted, smiling up at Anakin's master. "Do you want to play dolls too?"

"No, thank you. I'm actually here to reclaim my Padawan, if you don't mind. We've got laundry to do," Obi-Wan informed her.

"Aww, man," she said, but picked up the dolls and put them back into her bag. "We were just getting to the good part too!"

"Sorry about that," Obi-Wan replied.

"See ya Giné," Anakin said as he stood up, his face still red.

"Bye. Can you play again when you get done?"

"I don't know," Anakin said. "We'll see."

"I hope so! I've never played dolls with a real-live boy before," she grinned back.

"To the washers, Padawan," Obi-Wan said, and the two of them headed off.

"That was embarrassing," Anakin admitted sheepishly. "Please don't tell anyone…"

"Oh, don't worry, I won't," Obi-Wan laughed. "It looks like our clothes are done. So I guess we take them to the dryer now?"

"Yes," Anakin paused. "She made me play, you know. I didn't want to."

"I'm sure."

"Seriously!"

"If you say so. Now get your clothes out." Obi-Wan began unloading his washers.

"Yuck! They smell like concentrated perfume." Anakin wrinkled his nose as he began taking clothes out of his machines.

"Yes they do," Obi-Wan agreed. "See, if you weren't so stubborn and had just gone with Gentle Breeze, we wouldn't have this problem."

"Same to you, about After the Rain."

"Oh well. I'm sure they won't smell so strong after they get dry," Obi-Wan reassured Anakin.

"I hope not. I'd rather smell like I haven't washed my clothes in a year than smell like this," Anakin replied.

"I wouldn't," Obi-Wan said. They finished getting their clothes out and made their way to the dryers.

"Okay. It looks like you press 'regular' on the temperature settings and then turn the knob to 'dry-miser' and 70," Anakin said. "Then put your clothes in and then coins. Then press the start button."

"Okay." They only needed one dryer each, as they were much larger than the washing machines.

"Now what?" Obi-Wan asked, as the machines roared to life.

"We wait again," Anakin said. "And this is the long part."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it takes almost twice as long to dry to clothes as it takes to wash them. See those people over there?" Anakin waited until Obi-Wan nodded. "Well, they put their clothes in the dryer at about the same time as we got here. And they're still waiting…"

"Oh, great."

"Yeah."

"We've been here for almost an hour," Obi-Wan pointed out.

"I know."

"What are we going to do for that long?"

"I don't know, but I'm so hungry I can barely stand it!" Anakin replied.

"Well, before I interrupted your…game, I was planning on buying a few snacks. I guess we still can."

"Great!" Anakin ran over to the snack machine. "I want some cookies, nillers, green crispies, Bantha jerky…and about three packs of ry-ties! Oh, and a bag of skitellers. Or two."

"Anakin, I said I'd buy you a snack, not a week's worth of food! Choose two," Obi-Wan said, crossing his arms.

"Fine. I'll take two bags of nillers. For now," he paused. "Oh, and can I get a drink too?"

"I suppose so." Obi-Wan doled out the change and watched as Anakin eagerly bought his food. Then he bought a stick of Bantha jerky for himself.

"Thisis—munch—good! Youwannabite?" Anakin asked, gobbling down his nillers.

"No, thanks. Let's go sit back down, it looks like there are two seats open now."

"Okay." As soon as they sat down, little Giné came running over.

"You're back! Wanna keep playing?" she asked Anakin.

"Um…maybe when I finish my food," Anakin replied as he slowed down his eating. He really didn't want to hurt the young girl's feelings, but he also didn't want to make a complete idiot out of himself twice in one day.

"Oh, okay. I'll wait." She looked sad and didn't appear to be moving anytime soon.

"Giné?" A thin woman came up and put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Time to go."

"Mom, did you finish washing all of our clothes?"

"Yup, they're all clean and folded. Now, come on." The little girl looked sadly at Anakin.

"Bye Giné," he said. "Nice meeting you."

"You too Anakin! Here, you can have Jedi Barbette." She dug the doll out and handed it to him, then launched herself at him in a hug.

"Great, thanks." Anakin hugged the little girl back, and then she followed her mother out of the laundromat.

"Well, you sure made a friend fast!" Obi-Wan kidded again. "She seems like a sweet little girl."

"I guess so." Anakin didn't know what to do with the doll, so he tucked it under his arm. "I just don't know what I'm going to do with this."

"I don't know either," Obi-Wan shrugged. "I guess you can hang on to it or give it to another little girl." Anakin nodded. A few minutes passed in silence.

"I'm bored, Master."

"Me too. We can look around the shop next door again, if you want. Or we could play charades or something," Obi-Wan suggested.

"Yeah! Let's do that!" Anakin's eyes lit up.

"Okay. You can go first."

Anakin stood up, and held up two fingers.

"Two words," Obi-Wan said, and Anakin nodded. Then he put his hands out in front of him, and began moving his thumbs frantically.

"Typing?" Obi-Wan guessed, but Anakin shook his head and began moving his hands a little bit. "Driving?" Anakin shook his head again and held his hands still again. Then he paused and made a square in the air, which he pointed at. Finally, he held his hands up again and began flicking his thumbs.

"Remote control?" Obi-Wan guessed, Anakin shook his head, but smiled. Obi-Wan was getting closer. "Video game?"

"Yes!" Anakin sat back down. "Your turn."

"Okay…let's see here," Obi-Wan sighed, then stood up. He put his arms straight up in the air, and began writhing around.

"Okay then… Uh, belly dancer?" Anakin guessed.

"No!" Obi-Wan couldn't help but laugh. He continued squirming about.

"Snake?"

"No." Obi-Wan began shaking his fingers as he wiggled. Then he bent his knees and stood up again, a few times in a row.

"Seizure?"

"No."

"Water sprinkler?" Anakin looked at Obi-Wan's shaking fingers.

"Not quite."

"I have no idea… Youngling?"

"No."

"Traffic?"

"No."

"Evil?"

"No." Obi-Wan shook his fingers dramatically, and then fell down. A few other people looked on amusedly.

"Waterfall!" a woman called, interrupting their game.

"Yes! Thank you," Obi-Wan said.

"That looked _nothing_ like a waterfall!" Anakin cried.

"It sure did!" the woman who had solved the game said. Anakin glared at her.

"Your turn," Obi-Wan said.

"I'm not playing anymore." Anakin crossed his arms.

"Oh, come on. I'll do an easy one next time."

"No." Anakin snatched a magazine off of a nearby table, and busied himself with flipping through it.

"I'll play!" the woman said.

"Okay," Obi-Wan agreed. She stood up and threw her arms up into the air.

"Tree," Anakin whispered to himself, watching them out of the corner of his eye.

"Tall?" Obi-Wan asked.

"No," the woman said.

"Goal?"

"No."

"Fire?"

"No."

"Building?"

Anakin turned away in disgust and glanced down at the magazine he had grabbed. It was called _Coruscanti Housekeeping_. Anakin almost laughed; here he was, sitting at a laundromat with a doll tucked under one arm and a woman's magazine on his lap. Wouldn't his friends back on Tatooine like to see him now? Big bad Jedi playing with his doll! He shook his head and quickly put the magazine away.

"Toilet?" Obi-Wan still hadn't figured out what the woman was trying to imitate.

"Tree," Anakin growled in disgust. "At least the one I missed was more complicated than that!"

"Right," The woman said.

"Master, I'm going to go walk around outside. I'll be back later, okay?"

"Okay Anakin," Obi-Wan called, as he began hopping on one leg.

Anakin stood up and strolled out of the laundromat. He walked around the back and came upon a small group of people. They were sitting in a circle, and a few people were clutching flimsi-pads. Anakin decided to see what they were doing.

"Hello!" he said. "Are you all waiting for your clothes to get done too?"

"We sure are. We're actually the regulars…we meet up once a week to do laundry and hang out," one of the younger members said.

"Oh," Anakin replied.

"You're a Jedi, aren't you?" a man asked. Anakin nodded. "I don't think we've ever seen one of you at the laundromat before."

"Yeah. Well, the Temple's washing machines broke and things were starting to get pretty smelly…" Anakin explained, still wondering what exactly they were doing. "I never realized washing clothes could be so boring!"

"Oh, it doesn't have to be boring, child. Here, join our circle," the oldest woman in the group said gently. A few people scooted over, so Anakin sat down. He hoped they weren't dealing in something illegal.

"What's your name?" a dark-haired girl asked. "I'm Jurn."

"Anakin."

"Well, have you ever heard of Mad-Libs, Anakin?" the man asked.

"No," Anakin replied.

"Well, they're these great word games. You replace certain words with other, random ones, and end up with a really goofy story."

"It's easier to understand if you plunge right in," the older woman, Jurn, remarked, noticing Anakin's confused look. "Here, I'll ask you for parts of speech. You just answer with whatever you think of, and then I'll read you your story. Sound good?"

"Okay," Anakin agreed.

"Pass the flimsi-pad, Tad," the woman demanded, snatching it from the man. "Okay. Give me a verb ending in i-n-g."

"Skipping," Anakin replied.

"Good. Now a room in a house."

"Refresher." The two continued back and forth, until the woman reached the end of the list. "Okay. Are you ready to hear your story?"

"Yeah!" Anakin replied, excited. He hoped he'd come up with something good.

"Here it goes: One day, while I was skipping in the refresher, a shrieking Wookiee fell through the roof. It immediately jumped on my bookcase and knocked over my starfighter. Then it ran out the door into the dining room and sobbed a box off the clothes hanger. It then knocked a glass of water off the coffee table. After .72 minutes of chasing the Wookiee through the house, I finally caught it and put it outside. It quickly climbed the nearest boot," the woman chuckled. "Well, that wasn't too bad!"

"Yeah," Anakin smiled. "I think I like Mad-Libs." A few people laughed.

"Now it's Wilma's turn," Tad said, taking the flimsi-pad back. Then he began asking another woman a series of questions.

"Let's see what I came up with," she winked at Anakin as Tad began reading.

"This is called 'Proper Scalp Care,'" he looked around dramatically. "Don't neglect your scalp! Even though you don't know it, your scalp may be suffering immensely. This can cause your hair to become lying and back-stabbing. A yellowish scalp is due to overactivity on the part of the hoosy-woosy gland and to excessive production of the desks normally present in the skin. For healthy scalp, wash your head quickly every night in bold maroon water and then drink a hot cup shampoo. Massage your speeder for five minutes with a sharp dress. If you suffer from lonely hair, soak your leg regularly in a vat of vinegar." Tad finished.

"Oh dear!" Wilma said, as the group collapsed in laughter.

"I sure hope my hair doesn't become a liar and back-stabber!" Anakin snorted.

"What good would massaging your speeder do, anyway?" Tad asked, laughing.

"I don't know, but I have to start soaking my leg in a vat of vinegar every day!" another girl said, laughing. "My poor hair cries out of loneliness all the time!"

"Aw," Wilma patted her on the shoulder. "Okay, it's Milarak's turn now!"

They went around the circle until each person had had a turn. Some of the stories they came up with were so funny, Anakin thought he was going to explode. Once everyone had gone, Tad put the flimsi-pad away and sighed.

"Well, is everyone ready for lunch?" he asked.

"Sure," came the mumbled replies.

"Would you like to come, Anakin?" Wilma asked.

"Can I?" he asked.

"Of course, we don't mind. The more the merrier!"

"Okay, just let me go ask my Master first," Anakin told them.

"Of course," Tad said, as Anakin got up and hurried back inside, pleased to have found something to do.

_Inside… _

Obi-Wan was standing on one leg with two chairs, a stack of magazines, a data pad, a few sodas, a bottle of lotion, a woman's purse, and two boxes of tissues balanced on his head. A group of people were gathered around him cheering, as the woman he'd been playing Charades with earlier placed a roll of toilet paper on top of the massive pile. Anakin strutted right up to him.

"Oh, hello, Anakin," Obi-Wan looked embarrassed to have been caught in such a situation.

"I'm not even going to ask what you're doing!" Anakin smirked. "Can I go to lunch with a couple of people I just met?"

"I think we've only got twenty or so minutes until the clothes should be dry," Obi-Wan replied. Another woman added a bag of nuts to the pile on top of his head.

"I'll try to be back by then. I mean, we must be going somewhere nearby—they all have clothes here to watch too," Anakin tried again.

"Okay, I suppose you can go then," Obi-Wan replied, suddenly jumping and switching feet.

"Thanks." Anakin turned and went back outside.

"Okay, let's add a few more magazines!" a kindly-looking-woman called, grabbing a pile off of a nearby table and tossing it on top of Obi-Wan's head.

"And a bag of my laundry!" another yelled, adding it to the pile.

"Whoa…" Obi-Wan wobbled and everything fell off his head.

"Man, now we have to start all over!" one of the women yelled.

"No, no, that's okay." Having been caught playing a game of "Balancing Wars" by Anakin had gone a long ways toward making Obi-Wan realize that he was behaving more like the Padawan than the Master. It wasn't his fault the woman who'd joined in on his Charades game had a few more ideas up her sleeve…

"Are you sure?" someone asked. "I haven't had this much fun in years! We're all acting like a bunch of younglings." The group laughed.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm starting to get tired," Obi-Wan said as he excused himself from the group. He wandered back over to the snack machine and bought himself a few treats to suffice as his lunch. He was beginning to wish Anakin had invited him along to eat. He watched the group of rowdy women continue to balance random objects on each others' heads as he ate. He couldn't believe they'd actually had him doing that, but he had to admit that it had been fun… He briefly wondered if any of the other Jedi would want to play sometime, but quickly pushed the thought away. There was no way he could imagine any of them acting so crazy. Sometimes he agreed with Anakin, the Jedi could be too serious and needed to have a little but of fun once in the while!

After he finished eating, he decided to flip through a few of the magazine.

_About Fifteen Minutes Later…_

"Anakin?" Obi-Wan called, as he saw his Padawan come back inside the laundromat.

"Yeah?" the boy asked, as he waved to the group he'd gone to eat with.

"Glad you're back, our dryers just buzzed."

"Oh, okay. Let's go get our clothes out then," Anakin replied.

"Where did you go to eat?" Obi-Wan inquired as they walked to the dryers.

"Some little stand a few streets over. I didn't catch its name, but they had really good pastries!"

"Pastries? Didn't you have any real food?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Pastries are real food…" Anakin replied.

"How many did you eat?" Obi-Wan leaned into his dryer and began pulling clothes out.

"Six," Anakin admitted, flinching.

"Six? Good grief, I hope you don't get sick again!"

"I ate ten that time, Master," Anakin reassured him.

"Okay," Obi-Wan said, hoping his Padawan was right. The two Jedi finished unloading their clothes and took them to a folding table.

"They still smell like perfume…" Anakin pointed out, as he began folding his clothes.

"Yes they do. But they smell a lot better than they did before!" Obi-Wan replied.

"I guess."

They worked in silence for a few minutes until all of their clothing was neatly folded. They packed them back into their canvas bags, and prepared to leave the laundromat.

"Make sure you aren't forgetting anything," Obi-Wan commanded. Anakin scanned the entire building, but apart from the Jedi Barbette and a niller wrapper, he found nothing that belonged to either him or his master.

"Okay, I'm not," he said, adding the doll to his bag.

"Good. Then I guess we're off!" Obi-Wan replied.

"Let me say bye to a few people first," Anakin said, turning to find his Mad-Libbing buddies. Obi-Wan also said goodbye to the rambunctious group of women, who were still playing their crazy game. The two Jedi met by their speeder a few minutes later and then got in.

"It doesn't stink anymore!" Anakin said, as they left the parking lot.

"Thank goodness," Obi-Wan said happily. "Now that wasn't too bad, was it?"

"No, Master. It was actually a lot of fun! Can we come back some day?" the boy asked.

"Honestly, I hope we don't have to…" Obi-Wan trailed off.

"Aw, didn't you have a good time? What were you doing with all that stuff on your head anyway?" Anakin couldn't stop himself from asking.

"None of your business!" Obi-Wan joked. "But yes, I did have a good time."

"Forget amusement parks or fairs, the next time I get bored, I'm going to ask to go to the laundromat!" Anakin exclaimed.

"Oh dear."

The two made their way back the Temple and carried in their freshly cleaned clothing. A few good-humored jokes were made about their scent, but nothing the pair couldn't tolerate. Several other Jedi made their way to the laundromat the next day, desperate for a breath of fresh air.

Four days after Obi-Wan and Anakin's trip to the laundromat, a repairman finally showed up. He pointed out that the washing machines had simply been unplugged. Yoda said it was probably a young Initiate or Padawan, playing a trick on the entire Order. If he ever caught the guilty party, he vowed to bash them senseless.

* * *

Please review! It'll be appreciated, as will any tips you can share with me! Thanks. –TNoR


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